Wednesday, February 28, 2018

At the beginning of the month, I announced that I would be reading CHINA DOLLS by Lisa See in honor of Reading the World here at Book Bloggers International. I listened to this book all. month. long. because of the craziness of the month, but I did enjoy the story overall. If you have read the book, this month or previously, let's chat about the story in order to wrap up our month of travels to China. Feel free to answer any or all of the questions in the comment section below, or just leave general comments. It's your choice!

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Lisa See begins her novel with this poem . . .

“Only three things cannot be long hidden:the sunthe moonand the truth.”

Secrets are frequently revealed throughout the story, some very late in the tale. Which secret surprised you the most? Were there any that upset you? Why?

The story begins from Grace's point of view; her leaving Plain City, Ohio, to escape the abuse of her father. We eventually learn the truth behind her father's behavior. Did you feel this truth was sufficient for forgiveness? How did the abuse affect Grace's relationships with men after she left?

Ruby is a character very different from Grace, yet they became friends. What was your initial reactions to Ruby? Did they change as the story continued? How were Ruby and Grace similar, despite their differences?

Helen was raised a traditional Chinese woman, and she frequently was heard to be sharing traditional Chinese sayings. Is there one that stands out to you? How does her friendship differ from Grace and Ruby? How did sharing her past change the friendship, or even the reader's perspective on Helen?

Overall, what were your thoughts about the novel? Would you recommend it to a friend?

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Despite our travels to China this month, CHINA DOLLS keeps us here in the United States. We get the perspective of China (and Japan) from those within American culture. What novels do you recommend that take place in China, whether written by Lisa See or not?

Monday, February 12, 2018

Today, I would like to welcome Karen of BookerTalk. She is here to share her personal recommendations of Chinese literature.

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KAREN RECOMMENDS

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Sheer brilliance and provides a good overview of the cultural revolution. Genre - memoir

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien. This is a stunning novel which looks at the impact of the cultural revolution in musicians and the Tianneman Square protest which laid the seeds of China's emergence on the world stage. Genre - fiction

Mao’s Last Dancer is the autobiography of Li Cunxin, a boy who was plucked from a peasant family in rural China to become a trainee ballet dancer in Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. He and another student got a a chance to study abroad in America as an exchange student – there he discovered that everything he had been told about America was a lie. The book recounts his desire for freedom and determination to perfect his talent under a regime that did not value individual talent and freedom of expression. Genre - autobiography

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Saijie. The Maoist regime in the 1970s tried to ‘re-educate’ the cultural elite by sending them off to live with the peasants in the countryside. Saijie’s novel follows two young boys dispatched to a remote village where instead of being cleansed of all tainted ideas, they instead discover new ones through the novels of Balzac, Hugo and Flaubert that they have to hide from the authorities. Genre - fiction

Inspector Chen Cao Series. For something lighter there is a good detective series written by Qiu Xiaolong. The books are set in Shanghai in the 1990s – the decade when the country began its momentous change into a world class economic powerhouse. All nine titles feature Chief Inspector Chen Cao, a poetry-quoting cop who has high levels of integrity which often bring him into conflict with the Party machinery and his bosses.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Welcome to February and the month we are all going to be traveling to CHINA right here at Book Bloggers International!

In honor of our month of traveling, I will personally be reading CHINA DOLLS by Lisa See. At the end of the month, I will share a discussion post for anyone else willing to participate. See is one of my own personal favorite authors, and many know her for her novel, SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN. She was one who taught me that reading can really be for more than entertainment. I could learn about history and the world, all from the comfort of my own home. I think I "got this" from earlier books that I read, but it was See that cemented it for me. I look forward to reading this novel, or rather listening to it because I currently have it checked out on audio. Here's a quick peek for CHINA DOLLS courtesy of Goodreads . . .

In 1938, Ruby, Helen and Grace, three girls from very different backgrounds, find themselves competing at the same audition for showgirl roles at San Francisco's exclusive "Oriental" nightclub, the Forbidden City. Grace, an American-born Chinese girl has fled the Midwest and an abusive father. Helen is from a Chinese family who have deep roots in San Francisco's Chinatown. And, as both her friends know, Ruby is Japanese passing as Chinese. At times their differences are pronounced, but the girls grow to depend on one another in order to fulfill their individual dreams. Then, everything changes in a heartbeat with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the government is sending innocent Japanese to internment camps under suspicion, and Ruby is one of them. But which of her friends betrayed her?

I will also be sharing some guest articles from bloggers around the world, connecting books and China in some way. Guest spots are still available. If you are interested in contributing, email Tif at bookbloggersintl (at) gmail (dot) com.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Welcome to 2018 and our first Reading the World list! This month we're focusing on the country of South Africa, one of Africa's most economically prosperous nations with a remarkably diverse population and vibrant culture.

Landscape: About 2x the size of Texas, with 2798 km of coastline and an interior plateau rimmed with hills and mountains.

The modern history of South Africa is marked by apartheid, and many of the books from the country still address the issue, either directly or through the lens of social commentary. For this list I tried to include as many viewpoints and types of books as possible.

Read one of these books? Have a South African book you love that's not on the list? Let us know about it in the comments!

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

This was one of our readalong books in 2017, and wound up being one of my favorite reads of the year. Through a series of stories, Noah describes his experiences growing up in South Africa both pre- and post-Apartheid. I laughed, I cried... I think there's something in this book for everyone.

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

Speaking of favorite reads of 2017, this was one of Gin Jenny's from Reading the End. She describes it as a quiet novel where two women–one white, one black–move in next door to one another and go from enemies to friends.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

The most important book by the most important figure in recent South African history, Long Walk to Freedom is essential for understanding apartheid and modern South Africa. Random factoid: it's also the book most stolen from South African libraries.

Invictus by John Carlin

An appropriate follow-up to Long Walk to Freedom, describing how Mandela set out to heal the country in post-apartheid by reaching out to his enemies, through the specific lens of the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

If reading a book about rugby doesn't sound like your cuppa, maybe just watch the movie.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

This is one of my all-time favorite reading assignments from high school. It's a fantastic coming of age story set in the 1930s and '40s that goes from Boer boarding schools to prisons to diamond mines. There isn't even a hint of a romance in it and I still loved it. And if you know me that should tell you a lot about how good this book is.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Cry, the Beloved Country is also set in South Africa! I actually don't remember much about this book from back in the day when I read it, but it's a classic of South African fiction and Oprah loves it.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

An intriguing-sounding science fiction novel set in an alt-world Johannesburg, where people who commit a crime are magically attached to a spirit animal, or "animalled." Zoo City won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was shortlisted by the BSFAs for best novel.

Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe

An example of a South African genre known as "Jim Comes to Joburg," where a rural man–or woman, I presume–ventures into the big city for a new and better life. Welcome to Our Hillbrow was shortlisted for the 2002 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and takes place in the same neighborhood Trevor Noah's mother lived in when she met his father. Zoo City largely takes place there as well.

Dinosaurs, Diamonds & Democracy: A Short, Short History of South Africa by Francis Wilson

At only 144 pages, this introduction to South African history is the perfect place for people who don't know anything about the country to start. Wilson takes readers from the crashing of an asteroid to the first humans, to mining and post-apartheid, painting a picture of a vibrant land with constantly shifting demographics.

Disgrace by JM Coetzee

Coetzee is arguably South Africa's most famous writer, so he's always included on lists like this. HOWEVER, it seems as though no one actually enjoys reading his books, which are more bleak and depressing than a Christmas spent alone. In fact, several commenters have said they wished they *hadn't* read Disgraced. Pick up at your own risk.

My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan

A classic memoir where white-guy liberal Malan struggles to come to terms with his Afrikaner and racist heritage. Another not-cheery book, with many disturbing tales of apartheid atrocities.

Transfer by Ingrid de Kok

A sensitive and lyrical volume of poetry by a Cape Town native.

The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda

A novel that goes back and forth between post-apartheid and pre-colonial periods, contrasting modern South Africa against its tribal past. It was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the cover copy describes it as, "the first great novel of the new South Africa -- a triumph of imaginative and historical writing."

Between Two Worlds by Miriam Tlali

Tlali was the first black South African woman to publish a novel, and it wasn't that long ago: 1975. The government banned the book in 1979, but it was published internationally under this title.

The 30th Candle by Angela Makholwa

Makholwa holds the title of another first, this time of South Africa's first black mystery writer. The 30th Candle is described as a hip and fast-paced suspense novel that centers around the lives and friendship of three young women. Makholwa also wrote an intriguing-sounding mystery about a secret society made up of black businesswomen who "liberate" wives from abusive relationships, but that doesn't appear to be available in the States.

Thursday, November 23, 2017

November's selection for #12mos12rals is AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang, and what better time to read it than the Thankfully Reading Weekend. I will be live chatting as I read it this weekend over in our Goodreads group, and I would love it if you joined me. If you can't read it with me this weekend, no worries! You can join in when you finish right here on the blog or within the Goodreads group. I will be checking both!

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE is a re-read for me. I originally read this book in March 2015, and have not been able to get this book out of my head since. I felt it was a great time to revisit the story that has stayed with me for so long! So, let's do this!!

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Welcome to October, the spookiest month of the year! We thought it would be appropriate to read something scary this month, both in honor of Halloween and for all of you joining the RIP XII Challenge. The book we settled on? Shirley Jackson's modern horror classic, The Haunting of Hill House.

The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genreFirst published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

You can probably find this book at your library or on streaming services like Hoopla.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Today is our final day of discussion for QUIET by Susan Cain. Thank you all so much for joining in the conversation, even despite the delay in some of the questions. Be sure to check back next month for our next selection for our year of readalongs! Now, the final question . . .

How would you rate this book on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest, 5 the highest)? Would you recommend it to others? What would be your elevator pitch for the book?